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Title: Estimating active layer thickness and volumetric water content from ground penetrating radar measurements in Barrow, Alaska

Journal Article · · Geoscience Data Journal
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/gdj3.49· OSTI ID:1417821
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [6]; ORCiD logo [7]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Computational Earth Sciences; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Inst. of Arctic and Alpine Research
  2. Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States). Geology and Geophysics Dept., Dept. of Civil and Architectural Engineering
  3. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). National Snow and Ice Data Center, Cooperative Inst. for Research in Environmental Sciences
  4. Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong (China). Earth System Science Programme
  5. Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Dept. of Geophysics
  6. Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States). Geophysical Inst.
  7. Lanzhou Univ. (China). College of Earth and Environmental Sciences
+ Show Author Affiliations

Ground penetrating radar (GPR) has emerged as an effective tool for estimating active layer thickness (ALT) and volumetric water content (VWC) within the active layer. In August 2013, we conducted a series of GPR and probing surveys using a 500 MHz antenna and metallic probe around Barrow, Alaska. Here, we collected about 15 km of GPR data and 1.5 km of probing data. We describe the GPR data processing workflow from raw GPR data to the estimated ALT and VWC. We then include the corresponding uncertainties for each measured and estimated parameter. The estimated average GPR-derived ALT was 41 cm, with a standard deviation of 9 cm. The average probed ALT was 40 cm, with a standard deviation of 12 cm. The average GPR-derived VWC was 0.65, with a standard deviation of 0.14.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; ARC-0901962; NNX06AE65G
OSTI ID:
1417821
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-28335
Journal Information:
Geoscience Data Journal, Vol. 4, Issue 2; ISSN 2049-6060
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 12 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (12)

Ground‐penetratinng radar reflection profiling of groundwater and bedrock in an area of discontinuous permafrost journal September 1998
Ground-penetrating radar-derived measurements of active-layer thickness on the landscape scale with sparse calibration at Toolik and Happy Valley, Alaska journal February 2016
Spatial distribution of near surface soil moisture and its relationship to microtopography in the Alaskan Arctic coastal plain journal June 2005
Active Layer Stratigraphy and Organic Layer Thickness at a Thermokarst Site in Arctic Alaska Identified Using Ground Penetrating Radar journal May 2015
Quantifying and relating land-surface and subsurface variability in permafrost environments using LiDAR and surface geophysical datasets journal December 2012
Application of ground-penetrating radar imagery for three-dimensional visualisation of near-surface structures in ice-rich permafrost, Barrow, Alaska journal January 2007
Ground-penetrating radar and its use in sedimentology: principles, problems and progress journal August 2004
Application of ground-penetrating radar to measure near-saturation soil water content in peat soils: MEASURING SOIL WATER CONTENT IN PEAT USING GPR journal February 2012
Remotely Sensed Active Layer Thickness (ReSALT) at Barrow, Alaska Using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar journal March 2015
Decadal variations of active-layer thickness in moisture-controlled landscapes, Barrow, Alaska journal January 2010
Electromagnetic determination of soil water content: Measurements in coaxial transmission lines journal June 1980
Ground-penetrating radar-derived measurements of active-layer thickness on the landscape scale with sparse calibration at Toolik and Happy Valley, Alaska journal March 2016

Cited By (2)

Underground Measurement of Magnetic Field Pulses During the Early Stage of Rocket‐Triggered Lightning journal March 2019
Permafrost variability over the Northern Hemisphere based on the MERRA-2 reanalysis journal January 2019

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Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
Earth Sciences
ground penetrating radar
permafrost